In Your Dreams, Potter
by windream
Summary: It's their seventh year, and James refuses to give up. Unfortunately, Lily is just as stubborn in refusing him. But so much can change in just one year...
1. The Year Begins

Lily Evans pushed her cart through the station, eyes scanning for any sight of her two best friends. It was the first day of her seventh year and she couldn't see anyone but Muggles at the station. She spotted someone that seemed to look like a wizard and pushed her cart toward him, hoping to find a friend.

It was only when she was two feet away from him that she recognized who she was about to bump into. Lily swerved her cart immediately and was about to take off in the opposite direction when…

"Evans!"

Lily pushed on. "Maybe if I ignored him…" she thought.

No such luck.

"Evans! Evans! EVANS!" James Potter chased after her as Lily continued walking forward.

Realizing that about half the station was staring at her and not wanting to cause more of a scene than she had already had, Lily stopped and swerved around sharply to face none other than James Potter.

"Oy, Evans," James said. He was slightly out of breath and so was she, which was not surprising, as Lily had walked past five platforms to avoid him. "I was afraid you couldn't hear me."

"No?" Lily muttered under her breath, but James didn't hear. "Yes, Potter?"

James didn't answer. He was simply staring at her.

"POTTER!"

"Oh, yes," James snapped out of his daze and a small smile began to form on his lips. He ruffled his hair and saw Lily's green eyes flare up with rage. "Are you Head Girl?"

"Yes, Potter," Lily said, annoyed. "Is that all?"

James smiled widely at the girl and said, "That's good."

Lily was a bit startled at his response and said, "Potter, I don't think it's good for you because I could easily hand you punishments and…

"Wait, Evans," James held up his hand in front of her face to stop her. "I have something to show you.

"What makes you think I want to see something you have?" Lily retorted and was about to push on when…

"Don't you want to know who the Head Boy is?"

Lily froze and felt a chill go down her spine. She had been wondering who the Head Boy was, but James Potter's reaction to her being Head Girl was so strange. He was so happy, almost too happy. This meant that…No, it couldn't be. Nobody would be cracked enough to put James Potter in the position of…

"Head Boy, Evans. I'm Head Boy," James smirked slightly at Lily's dumbfounded reaction. He had his badge out and held it in front of her face.

Lily didn't say anything for a while. She only stared at the badge, her eyes wider than ever and her mouth slightly open. After about a minute of this…

"Are you still alive, Evans?"

Lily moved her eyes from the badge to James' hazel eyes. "Excuse me," she said very quietly. "I think I need to go over there and die now." She pushed her cart toward platform nine and three-quarters very slowly. James did not follow.

Lily got to the platform and suddenly felt an urge to scream. She opened her mouth wide but no sound would come out so, if you really looked at her, she looked like she was choking on something.

"Lily?"

Lily turned around to find both of her best friends there: Anne Davis and Elain Bellmont.

"Are you O.K.?" Elain asked her. She was a pretty girl with long brown hair and brown eyes.

"I think she's dying," Anne remarked. She was the most sensible of the three and also the tallest. Anne also had brown hair, though it was much lighter than Elain's, and blue eyes.

"I think so, too." Elain agreed, looking at Lily. "Lily? To we need to call the paramedic?"

"Puuuhhhhh…..tttteeeeerrrrrhhhhhhh." Lily hissed angrily.

"I think she's trying to say something. Quick, Elain! We need to teach her English so we could capture our dear Lily's dying words!" Anne said.

Lily whacked her on the shoulder before saying, or shouting rather. "JAMES POTTER IS HEAD BOY!"

"Oh…" Anne said.

"…my." Elain finished for her.

"This is going to be one hell of a year," Lily groaned.

"Is Evans Head Girl, Prongs?" Sirius Black asked his best friend as they pushed their carts toward platform nine and three-quarters.

"Yup," James said happily.

"No wonder you looked so happy," Remus Lupin, another one of their friends, said as he smiled wryly at James.

"Moony, my friend," James said, smiling widely. "This year's the year."

"The year for what?" Peter, always the slow one, questioned. James, however, wasn't very annoyed.

"This is the year Lily is going to go out with me."

"Or the year Evans is going to go insane having to work with you," Sirius said, avoiding the daggers James was shooting his way with his eyes.

"Either way," Remus said, "she's going to have to be with you every day of the year."

James smiled. "This is going to be one hell of a year."


	2. On the Train

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

The Marauders pushed their way through the Hogwarts Express, trying to find a compartment.

"It's kind of sad," Sirius remarked dryly, "our last train ride to Hogwarts."

"If you're that sad," Peter squeaked, "You could become a teacher here and come back every year. I hear Snape wants to do that."

"Snivellous?" Sirius snickered. "Who'd want to be taught by him?"

Two seventh year girls walked past the four. They looked briefly at Sirius before giggling and walking quickly away, occasionally glancing back at him. Sirius, however, paid them no attention and threw Peter a disgusted look as he stared after them.

James, watching this, looked at Sirius and said, "How's Samantha?" Ever since their sixth year, Sirius had been spending a lot of his free time, much to the despair of many girls their year, with a pretty seventh year Ravenclaw, Samantha Landings.

Sirius glanced at his friends. "Samantha? Oh, her family has been traveling a lot this summer, and we didn't communicate that much… I hear Sprout's going to be Hufflepuff's Head this year."

James grinned. "Well, at least she's a teacher that doesn't hate me. The Head Boy…" he paused briefly, "…and Girl, have to take a lot of orders from the professors of each House." And upon finishing, his grin grew wider.

"Oh, I wouldn't be gloating so much if I were you, James," Remus advised. "For all I know, Lily Evans still hates your guts."

"But what you don't know, Moony," James said, "is that that's all going to change very soon."

"You'd better hope so, Prongs, or you should really start paying attention to another girl," Sirius said playfully, ignoring the glares James was shooting at him.

"Hi, Samantha," Lily said as she found a compartment on the train. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

"Not at all," Samantha Landings smiled. She was definitely one of the prettiest girls in Hogwarts. Anne had always remarked that she and Sirius were matching on their looks. "Oh, Lily, congratulations on making head girl," Samantha said kindly, looking at Lily's badge.

"Thanks," said Lily, as she, Anne, and Elain moved into the compartment.

As they unpacked their luggage and sat down, two girls their year walked past their compartment. They stopped at the door and gave Samantha appraising looks.

"You're Samantha Landings," one of the girls said.

"Hm," said Samantha, as if contemplating whether or not she _was_ Samantha Landings.

"Aren't you with Sirius? Sirius Black?" the other girl asked, with a hint of envy.

"Hm," Samantha said again before turning to the two girls and saying, slowly and carefully, "Well, he's not with me at this moment." She smiled with a look of full sincerity and Lily laughed inwardly. It took a while before the two girls knew what she meant.

They were displeased and muttered a quick, "we'll see you at school" before storming off past them. Anne shut the compartment door afterwards. "Unnecessary distractions," she murmured.

Soon after, Samantha left for the Prefects' meeting and the compartment was left to the three girls.

"How's your sister, Lily?" Elain asked when Samantha left.

"Hates me as usual," Lily answered causually. "She's getting married to a horrible brute of a man…though not nearly as bad as the new Head Boy we've got ourselves here."

"You mean the new Head Boy you've got yourself there," Anne smirked.

Lily stiffened, "Could it be that he's not really Head Boy and that Remus or someone is Head Boy and Potter just stole their badge?" She questioned her friends, almost pleading with them to agree with her.

"No," Elain answered quickly. "Potter wouldn't be gloating like he did if someone else was Head Boy when you're the Head Girl. He gets awfully jealous really easily. Why, remember last year when…

"No!" Lily quickly interrupted. "I don't remember! Who wants chocolate?"

"I do!" Elain raised her hand as Anne rolled her eyes and said, "You get distracted so easily."

"Great," Lily said, getting up. "I'll go buy some chocolate."

"Oh Lils," Anne stopped her friend. "I think you better hurry to your meeting right about now. The Heads have to be there soon after the Prefects are."

Lily flinched as she was reminded of her duties. "Oh yes," she said sarcastically. "I have that meeting with James Potter. Now what wouldn't be better than that?"

"And the funny thing is," Anne said, "that other girls would say the exact same thing, but not sarcastically at all."

Lily scoffed and walked out of their compartment towards the compartment of the Prefects. When she opened the compartment door, she found that everyone was there and getting settled into their seats.

"Evans," James said when she saw her walk in. He was leaning against a side wall and causually tossing a ball. Even Lily had to admire his reflexes. No matter where James threw the ball, he could always catch it with ease.

"Potter," Lily said. Then, looking at the inquisitive faces of the Prefects, who were wondering if the head boy and girl really got along that well, she forced herself to smile.

James walked up to her and leaned over to whisper, "No need to look so pained, Evans."

Lily smiled again, this time more with sincerity, and turned to James to whisper, "James Potter, I'm sure there is a need."

They said no more, as the Prefects were now settled down and looking at them. Lily and James gave the instructions Dumbledore had informed they should give, and the meeting was quite successful. They soon left and left the compartment to Lily and James, who cleaned up after them without any commotion.

"Well," Lily said as she turned to leave. "Bye, Potter."

James watched her for a while until she was at the compartment's door before saying, "Oy, Evans!"

Lily turned back.

"Will you go out with me?"

Lily sighed before walking back towards James, until she was only about a foot away from him. "In your dreams, Potter," she said quietly before walking out.


	3. First Day Back

Disclaimer: Don't own anything ever ever ever.

The beginning of the year feast was always the best for Lily. Not because the food got worse as the year progressed, but because the first day back made her feel content and comfortable, and when Lily was happy, her food was delicious. However, the food hadn't arrived yet.

"I'm hungry," Elain whined. "Hungry, hungry, hungry."

Lily was puzzled. "How can you be hungry when you just ate fourteen pounds of chocolate on our ride here?"

Elain glared at her. "If I ate fourteen pounds then you ate like forty."

"I barely ate any!" Lily retorted. Elain was about to fight back and the two were about to enter a chocolate war argument when Anne briefly cut them off.

"Shut up, you guys, sorting's starting," she hushed them and turned to watch as forty or so timid looking eleven-year-olds scramble into the Great Hall. They huddled close together and shrank away from the ghosts, who were cheerfully greeting them. The Great Hall fell into a merry buzz as its students watched the newcomers enter.

The old sorting hat was brought out and placed on the stool. Professor McGonagall opened a roll of parchment and began reading off the names as each boy or girl went up and jammed the hat onto their heads.

The first boy to be sorted turned out a Gryffindor, and as Lily cheered and clapped she found herself very amused at the boy's confident stride to the Gryffindor table. He reminded her of James and Lily turned her head to look at him. He sat quite a distance away from her with Sirius, Remus, and Peter, and didn't notice her gaze.

The Marauders were clapping happily with looks on their faces that showed amusement and welcome. Lily again was pondering how James made head boy when Elain's voice shattered her thoughts.

"Lils," she said. "I know James Potter is really great to stare at continuously, but people around us are starting to get ideas."

Lily's blushed and quickly turned back around. Anne and Elain both laughed softly but said nothing more as another boy was sorted into Gryffindor.

James watched in admiration as Headmaster Dumbledore made his speech. He had always viewed Dumbledore with high regard and aspired to be someone like him. Dumbledore's speech was short but, as always, very interesting. He ended with another round of strange words before saying, "Let the feast begin."

"I'm starving," Sirius said as the Great Hall began to get noisy again. He stabbed the nearest plate beside him and quickly deprived it of two large pieces of chicken.

"I can tell," Remus said, watching Sirius fill up his plate with enthusiasm. He was quickly done and the plates around him were noticeably emptier but soon filled up.

"Can you eat all that, honestly?" Peter inquired, watching in awe as Sirius began to fill his mouth much the same way as he had filled his plate.

"I can eat all this and two plates more," Sirius said between mouthfuls. Peter quickly began filling his plate with everything Sirius had.

James frowned slightly at Peter's odd behavior. "Why are you eating everything Padfoot's eating, Wormtail?" he asked.

"I'm trying to get Emmie Terris to go out with me," Peter said, as if that explained every mystery in the world.

"Oh, yes," Sirius nodded. "That explains everything we've ever wanted to know, Peter."

Remus smiled slightly as he dug into his own food. "Emmie Terris?" he asked. "That girl from Hufflepuff? What does she have to do with eating the same foods as Sirius?"

Peter chewed down his slice of chicken. After quite a while he said, "I asked her out last year and she said…"

"Yes?" James was inquisitive. "What did she say?"

"She said she'll go out with me…if I became more like Sirius," Peter murmured.

Sirius let out a bark-like laughter and James couldn't help but chuckle. Remus could only shake his head in disapprobation but smiled a little. Peter couldn't figure out why they were laughing and could only look puzzled as he reached for more of the food Sirius had gotten.

When he had stopped laughing Sirius said, "Emmie Terris is a jerk. Forget her, Wormtail."

Peter looked slightly unhappy but continued to eat his food.

"I saw Snape today," James said, changing the subject.

"I bet he was happy to see you," Remus muttered, and his face was set in a serious expression.

"Don't think he was that happy," James smiled. "I said hi and he cursed at me. What's a guy gotta do to make friends with the Slytherines these days?"

Sirius offered fake sympathy and patted his friend on the shoulder. "It's okay, Prongs. It's okay. One of these days we'll all be skipping down the halls singing songs with the Slytherines."

James laughed and bit into his corn. He talked and roared with his friends, causing quite a racket as the Marauders usually did when they were together, and getting quite a few people's attention. Professor McGonagall even eyed them sternly but, seeing as they hadn't done anything troublesome yet, didn't say anything. When the feast was over, James got up to walk to the dormitories with the rest of Gryffindor when Remus grabbed his arm.

"James?" Remus raised his eyebrows. "You're Head Boy now."

James shrugged, surprised. "So?" he asked.

Remus rolled his eyes. "So you have something called responsibility. That's probably the first time you've heard the word, but it means you'll have to lead the first years to the dormitories."

"Oh," James said, watching Sirius and Peter's retreating backs. He then looked back at Remus thoughtfully and paused to ask, "Why weren't _you_ made Head Boy, Moony?"

Remus shrugged but then said, "Maybe Dumbledore thought you and Lily would work well together." But he had said it so softly that James, who was already going to help lead the first years, didn't hear.


	4. Start of Classes

Lily collapsed on her bed. It was only nine o'clock but she was already very exhausted from the journey to Hogwarts. It felt good to be back again. Anne and Elain were fighting for the bathroom and Lily was just about to fall asleep when something caught her ears.

"Did you see James Potter today?" said one of the girls who just entered their dormitory. There were five people in the seventh year Gryffindor girls' dormitory, and the remaining two had just entered.

Lily groaned. It was almost instinctive.

"Hi Lily," both girls said cheerfully in unison.

"Hi," Lily muttered, too tired to open her eyes.

The girls continued on their conversation. "He's so cool!" one of them said.

Lily's eyes snapped open. "No he's not," she said, suddenly finding the energy to argue.

"Maybe we're talking about different James Potters," one of them said.

"Goodness," Lily declared, "I would die if there was more than one James Potter in this school."

"But he is really cool," they continued. "He's smart, a good Quidditch player, really handsome."

"Especially when he messes up his hair to look like he just got off the Quidditch field," the other one added.

Lily fell out of her bed with a thud and didn't bother to immediately get up.

"Woah, Lily, are you okay?" Anne, who had just come out of the bathroom, asked her friend.

Lily got up and said, "James Potter is an arrogant, egoistic jerk who picks on other people because he has nothing better to do. He's a big show-off who, by no talent of his own, got picked for Head-Boy, the most unsuitable position for him in the world." After she finished her tirade, Lily crawled back onto her bed again. The two girls were silent and decided to carry on their conversation somewhere where the head girl couldn't hear.

Anne kneeled by her side and said, "Wow, that was more exciting than usual. Did he ask you out again?"

Lily turned over and nodded with an annoyed expression on her face as she recalled the last moments of the train ride. "I wish Potter would disappear from my life."

Anne was quiet for a moment before asking, "Do you?" She then crawled into her own bed.

Lily turned around to face the wall but, instead of sleeping, she was now wide awake. She thought about Anne's question for a long time and, when she was finally sleepy, everyone else in the dormitory was already dreaming.

………………………………………………

"C'mon, wake up!" Remus shoved a sleepy James before beginning to poke Sirius on the next bed. It was eight in the morning and the four Marauders had gone to sleep late at night after sorting out their vast supply of what Professor McGonagall would've called 'troublemaking items.'

Sirius yawned and began to blink his eyes open. "Can you not be excited about school for one day, Moony?" he asked.

Remus rolled his eyes and said, "We have advanced transfiguration with the Ravenclaws first thing this morning. And after all the lovely entrances we've made for the past several years…

"Our entrances were fine," James said, his eyes still closed. "We were just a bit late every time."

"Our entrances were not fine," Remus retorted. "And I can't bear to face History of Magic after you two walked into class the first day of last year talking about how boring Professor Binns was."

"Hey," Sirius complained, now beginning to get up. "Not my fault I didn't see him in the corner. He _is_ transparent, you know."

Remus sighed. "Just get up. Even Peter is up."

Sirius and James both sat up immediately, surprised.

"Really?" James asked.

"No," Remus said. "I hit him with my pillow using all my strength, but he was immobile. But at least you guys are now surprised out of bed. Let's go eat. I don't want to be late for the five-hundredth time in a row."

James grumbled. Remus was already dressed in his black robes and it took a while for the other two to find their clothes. It was only the second day and their dormitory was already a mess.

It took even longer for the three to wake Peter up. After whacking him continuously with pillows and shouting in his ear, Peter finally got up, muttered a: "huh? Did someone call me?" and got dressed.

The Marauders made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, they bumped into Snape. He immediately snarled and backed away, his wand out in dwelling position.

"Don't even try anything, Potter, Black," he spat out the names like they were poison and narrowed his eyes angrily at them.

Professor Sprout, who was nearest, eyed the group of boys wearily. She was just getting out of her seat, probably to reprimand them, when James spoke up.

"Not even you are stupid enough to do anything in the Great Hall in front of all these teachers," he murmured.

Snape looked around, saw Professor Sprout, and moved away, cursing at them under his breath.

"Pleasant greasy guy," Sirius said as he shoved his hands casually into his pockets and blew his bangs out of his eyes, and action that never failed to impress girls.

"C'mon, let's go eat." Remus said, and the four headed over to the Gryffindor tables. They had a hearty breakfast and walked off pleasantly to Transfiguration class.

……………………………..

To Remus' delight, the Marauders were not late to class for the first time in several years. ("We'll make up for it tomorrow," James said." Remus had ignored him.) Professor McGonagall used their first day of classes to immediately jump into their textbook.

"Today," McGonagall said, "We will be talking about animagi." And with that, she tapped her teaching stick on the board so sharply that several people jumped in surprise.

James looked up from his book. He met Sirius' eyes and they grinned at each other. Sirius put his hands behind his head and leaned back so that only two legs of his chair was touching the ground.

"Mr. Black!" McGonagall's face flared up. "If you lean back anymore, my chair legs are going to break!"

Sirius fell forward to the normal position and smiled at Professor McGonagall. "I won't break it. I've been practicing for the last seven years."

The students laughed. McGonagall's lips tightened. "Well, Mr. Black," she said. "Then make this your first year to pay attention."

Several people laughed again and Sirius smiled. Despite McGonagall and the Marauder's seemingly antagonistic relationship, they were actually her favorite students. (well, not so much Peter.) James, especially, was brilliant at transfiguration.

Elain, who was sitting two rows up from the four boys, turned to Samantha by her side and said, "He's so audacious. How can you possibly stand him?"

Samantha only smiled fondly and shrugged.

Lily, who was sitting by Elain's side, said, "Look, McGonagall's turning into a cat again."

As she turned back into a human, Anne whispered. "You must be brilliant at transfiguration to be able to do something like that."

Lily nodded in agreement as she applauded McGonagall in admiration.

"Your Potter' brilliant at this. He could probably do it," Elain whispered to Lily.

Lily felt a slight twinge in her spine as she heard Elain's words. It was ironic, because she had just thought of the exact same thing. She turned and looked back at James. He was looking at her, but was surprised that she looked back. He waved. She scowled.

Lily turned around, determined not to look at James again. She was drifting off, thinking about the complicated process of human turning to animal when James was by her side.

"What do you want, Potter?" She asked.

"Want to be partners, Evans?" James grinned at her.

"No," she said out of pure instinct. "I'm with Anne."

James smiled again. "Didn't you hear McGonagall, Evans? You have to pair up with someone of the opposite gender. And she wants us to go with someone we usually don't work with."

Lily looked around her and quickly grabbed a timid Ravenclaw boy.

"I'm with David, then," she said.

"David already has a partner," James raised his eyebrows.

"Uhh…" David stammered, about to deny James' statement when James glared at him.

"Uh, yeah," David quickly said, "I'm working with Samantha!"

"Samantha's working with Sirius," Lily quickly said.

"I mean the other Samantha!" David squeaked, reminding both Lily and James of Peter. He quickly moved away. There were no other boys left for Lily to pair up with.

She glared at James and said, "There is no other Samantha."

James shrugged, assumed a look of innocence, and said, "Beats me what he's thinking."


	5. Laughter and Some

"How can you possibly know so much about Animagi?" Lily asked, incredulous. McGonagall had asked them to work together and write a basic summary of the process and steps involved in turning into and animagus.

James smiled and shrugged. He had just explained to Lily the entire concept without so much as a glance at their Advanced Transfiguration textbook. "I like Transfiguration," was his only reply.

"No one," Lily said, still looking at him, "could like Transfiguration that much as to know the entire process of, of what you just described."

James shrugged again and said, choosing his words carefully, "Well I do, Evans. Just like you like Charms."

This comment took Lily completely by surprise and she looked back down at their textbook, though she wasn't reading anything. Inadvertently, she smiled a little, feeling somewhat happy that he knew what her favorite subject was.

Back a table behind them, Elain grumbled loudly and said, "I don't get this!" Her partner, a light-haired Ravenclaw boy, looked rather intimidated. Anne, who was working at the next table with Remus, laughed slightly at her. Lily caught Anne's eyes and they both smiled before Anne's face turned suddenly serious. Her lips formed the words, "Shocking, isn't it?" before quickly turning back to talk to Remus again.

Lily was bewildered at what Anne had meant, but soon forgot about it as they turned their paper in to Professor McGonagall.

She peered at them as she took their paper and said, "Finished already?"

James smiled a crooked smile and said, "Of course," before turning and walking back down the aisle again.

They weren't the only one who finished fast. Soon after them, Sirius, Samantha, Remus, and Anne went up to turn in their papers. Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows at each one of them, but didn't say anything.

When class ended, the Gryffindors headed to Potions and the Ravenclaws to Herbology. Lily caught up with Anne and asked, "What did you mean by shocking?"

Anne said, casually, "I mean the process of turning into an animal, it's shocking how people can be so good at transfiguration as to do this, don't you think?"

Lily nodded. Then Anne's face turned dark and she spoke again in a lower voice.

"And what's more shocking is how much Remus knows about this stuff. I heard some of you and James' conversation. He seems to know a lot, too, doesn't he?"

At this, Lily glanced at Anne sharply. "Transfiguration _is_ Potter's best subject," she said finally.

Anne shrugged. "I just thought it was a bit odd."

Their conversation ended there. When Elain caught up with them, they soon began contemplating the dreadful first lesson of Potions so much that the subject was soon lifted out of their minds.

Lily had a fair day in Potions. She had added a male banshee's rather than a female banshee's saliva to her sleeping potion so that it turned into a puke green rather than a butter yellow color, but everything else went rather well.

After Potions, they had lunch. Everything was going along peacefully when Lily heard screams from the Slytherine table.

They turned to look and, as it seemed, the legs of the Slytherine table had disappeared, and the tabletop had crashed on the floor, spraying bits of juice and food onto just about everyone in the process. The Slytherines were looking disgusted and horrified at what had just happened, and they were all standing up, trying to clean the gunk off. Everyone else in the Great Hall was also standing up, trying to get a good view of what had just happened.

"No…" Lily whispered, her eyes flashing angrily. Elain giggled slightly and even Anne laughed, but Lily was the only one of the Gryffindors who didn't find the scene amusing. "He could not have," she hissed and immediately swiveled around to look at James.

He was pointing at Snape and laughing, with Sirius doubled up beside him. Peter was also squeaking in delight. Remus, who had buried himself in _The One Million Ways to Use Grass Roots in Potions_, was even having a hard time restraining himself from smiling.

"No, Lils," Elain said, still giggling as she saw the expression on Lily's face. "You are not going to…

"Oh, yes I am," Lily said with fire in her eyes.

"Lils…" Elain said again.

"POTTER!" Lily shouted at James, who immediately turned around to face her, still laughing at the Slytherines' fate.

"Evans!" He shouted back and ran his hand through his hair.

"I don't believe you!" Lily shouted again, quite frustrated. Quite a few people were now ungluing their eyes from the Slytherine scene to watch their Heads battle it out.

"What did I do?" James assumed a look of innocence which, not surprisingly, didn't work well. Even Remus had now put down his book to watch the two.

Lily went on, "You're so arrogant! What did they ever do to you, huh? Potter, you're always like this! You find some sort of entertainment from the embarrassment of others! You think you're so cool, but you're not! You're just a…a…bully, James Potter! I don't know how you can proceed to ask me out for the five hundredth time and…

James, whose face had fallen with each insult Lily had made, suddenly grinned said lightly, "You kept track, Evans? I never knew you cared so much."

The Gryffindors around them erupted into merry laughter. Lily stopped in her speech. As much as she didn't want to, she felt herself smile and turn slightly pink.

"Potter…you…" Lily was about to continue scolding but couldn't because she found herself laughing with the rest.

It was the first time for as long as she could remember that Lily Evans laughed at something James Potter had done to make her laugh.

James, seeing her reaction, chuckled lightly, feeling much happier until he felt a shadow cast over him. The shadow was caused by Professor McGonagall and the head of Slytherine, a grim woman called Professor Lott.

"Mr. Potter," McGonagall's voice was so deadly that the entire Gryffindor table quieted down. She seemed much taller at the moment to James.

"Uh…yes, Professor?" James offered nervously, glancing slightly at the huffing Professor Lott. The Slytherines, meanwhile, had forgotten about cleaning their food off and was now looking with full excitement at the scene.

"DID YOU DO THIS JAMES POTTER?" Lott screeched, pointing at the Slytherine table.

"Do what?" James asked, pulling an innocent look that was even worse than the one he had given Lily.

"Detention, Potter," McGonagall said again. "And twenty points from Gryffindor. I would think that making you a Head would have put more responsibility in you, but clearly it hasn't, has it Potter?" And, without waiting for an answer, she walked off briskly with Professor Lott trailing behind.

As she walked back, the Great Hall became loud again. Sirius patted his friend on the back and said, "At least you'll have detention with me."

James grinned and asked, curious, "You have detention, too?"

Sirius shook his head. "Nope," he said. "But I reckon I will pretty soon…Oh, Moony, don't look so glum. You can get detention with us."

Remus, who was looking disapprovingly at them, sighed and turned back to his book.

James sat back down again to finish his meal and he glanced at Lily. But instead of glaring at him, she looked back and smiled.


	6. Full Moon Trouble

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

It was two weeks after the Slytherine table incident and the morning of James' detention day. True to his word, Sirius had also gotten detention for pouring grease removal gel on Snape's head. The two had it on the same day, but were prudently separated into different rooms by Professor McGonagall.

The Gryffindors were having History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs and Lily, being one of the few who hadn't fallen asleep, was concentrating hard on taking notes. She was relatively disturbed when a paper airplane crashed into the back of her head.

Lily opened the parchment. It said: _Will you go out with me, Evans?_

She didn't even bother to turn around but instead scribbled back angrily: **_IN MY NIGHTMARES._**

_Why not? _James' handwriting came back.

_Last time I checked_, Lily wrote again, _the giant squid was still single. Quit bugging me Potter. _She crumpled up the paper and threw it back.

The reply was quick. _C'mon, Evans, just once._

_Throw this parchment back again and I'll ignore you for a month. _Lily wrote. She didn't fully expect James to listen, but was nevertheless surprised when the paper flew back.

_You ignore me anyways._ She read. At that moment, Professor Binns said, "Okay, class is over. I hope you all were taking notes, we have an exam on this tomorrow."

………………………….

"Wait a minute," Anne said, looking at Lily strangely. They were now back in the Gryffindor common room. It was late at night but none of the girls felt like sleeping.

Elain continued for her. "You need to borrow her History of Magic notes because of _what?_"

Lily winced. "I was a bit preoccupied."

"You were writing notes to Potter instead of listening to Binns!" Elain burst out laughing immediately after this.

"Hey," Lily snapped. "You don't listen to him either."

Between laughters, Elain breathed, "Yea, but that's because I'm catching up on my sleep, not because I'm busy writing to some guy I supposedly disliked."

"Starting to have a thing for him, Lils?" Anne smiled innocently.

Lily's face turned red. "Hell no. I wouldn't like Potter in a million…

"Hey," Elain interrupted her. "Don't the Marauders all call him Prongs?"

"Yeah," Anne was thoughtful. "Why do they do that?"

Lily snorted. "I don't know. He doesn't bare any resemblance to a fork. To say that he did would be an insult to the dinnerware. Give me your notes, Anne."

"Fine," Anne muttered as she passed Lily her notes. "We should go to bed soon. It's past twelve."

Just as she said that, a figure stumbled down from the stairs into the common room. Remus Lupin jumped in surprise as he met up with the sight of the girls. He looked dreadful. He was gaunt and pale and he wore the most tattered robes Lily had ever seen. They were shocked at how much he had changed in the course of one day.

"Hi," Anne broke the long silence between them.

In return, Remus waved his hand feebly but said nothing.

"Where you going at this hour?" Elain asked bluntly.

"Eh?" Remus said, as if startled. "Oh…I, um, I have to go home because well, uh, my, uh, Uncle Barry just died."

"I'm so sorry!" Lily cried out as Elain looked at him sympathetically.

Remus nodded to acknowledge their sympathies and moved toward the door.

"Remus," Anne called out. He turned around and she continued, "Didn't your Uncle Barry dies two years ago?"

"Eh?" Remus said as he went even paler. "What?"

"You had to go home fifth year because your Uncle Barry died then, didn't he?"

"Uh…" Remus stammered. "You must be confusing Uncle Barry with Uncle Larry. Uncle _Larry_ died two years ago but Uncle Barry just died yesterday."

"Oh," Anne nodded. "I'm sorry for you."

Remus shrugged nonchalantly, "That's ok." But, seeing the surprised reaction on the girls' faces, he said, "I mean, I'm really sad, of course." And then proceeded out the door.

……………………………….

"Why are we sitting here?" Lily groaned at breakfast between sips of orange juice.

"Because you missed me Evans," James said, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Potter," Lily hissed through gritted teeth. "Do you want me to hex you?"

James removed his arm. "You couldn't hex me if you tried."

Lily swerved her head around sharply. "What did you say, Potter?"

Next to her, Elain was conversing with Sirius.

"Well, he didn't seem very sad," she said, referring to Remus.

Sirius shrugged uneasily. "Oh, well, you know. Remus understands. It's the circle of life. You live, you die, it happens. Just because his Aunt Carrie died--- OW! Prongs, that was my foot you just stamped on!"

"Barry!" James hissed at his friend, turning his attention away from Lily.

"Just because his Aunt Barry died---OW!" Sirius jumped up in pain again.

"He's confused," James explained to Elain, who nodded sympathetically

"Potter!" Lily snapped. James turned back to her. "Are you saying you can duel better than me?"

"Are you saying I can't, Evans?" He returned evenly.

"Fine!" Lily said. "Then meet me tonight at eleven in the trophy room."

"I have detention tonight," James said.

She sighed. "Tomorrow then."

"Fine," James said. "You really think you can hex me, Evans?"

"Piece of cake!" She slapped the table, making pieces of their breakfast cake jump up, and then walked off to her class.


	7. A Startling Realization

Professor Lott had left to get some papers, leaving James to clean out the dozen cauldrons in the room without magic.

As soon as she left, James whipped out a mirror from his bag and muttered, "Sirius Black" into it. Sirius' grinning face soon came to view.

"Having fun cleaning, Prongs?" Sirius asked as he watched James scrub Lott's own cauldron while he sat in Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"Oh yeah, best detention I ever got" James said sarcastically. "What's McGonagall making you do?"

"Essays," Sirius' laconic reply came. "She had this talk with me before she left the room, about how brilliant we were at Transfiguration."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Sirius continued. "She suggested we could learn to become Animagi when we graduate, said it would be useful." There was a pause, and then both he and James burst out laughing.

"You should be done by seven, right?" Sirius asked James. It was now five, right after their classes ended for the day.

James nodded. "Should be. That gives us an hour to get Peter and the cloak and go find Moony. Wait—Lott's coming." He shoved the mirror back into his back as the woman entered the room.

Two hours later James, Sirius, and Peter were running down the boys' dormitory stairs. James had his invisibility cloak tucked under his arms

"Is Moony there?" Peter asked. "Pomfery usually leads him there by seven, right? Well I remember once she led him there at eight, and it was really late and everything, and Moony was getting pretty pale, but it was because the moon that night had come up a bit early or something, right? I mean…

"Let me check the map," James interrupted him. He opened the piece of parchment in his hands, the pride of the Marauders, and saw that Remus was already at the shack.

"Yeah," James said, then his eyes widened, "Oh, crap!"

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Evans!" James pointed to the entrance to Gryffindor common room and began getting out his cloak from under his arm but the door swung open at that moment and Lily walked in.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" Lily narrowed her eyes at the sight before her. "And what's that?" She leaned her head to look at the Maurauder's Map.

"My homework," James quickly rolled it up.

"Really? I could've sworn words were moving on there…

"We like to add a little zest to our homework," Sirius said, smiling with aplomb at Lily.

"Really, Black?" Lily raised her eyebrows. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"We just got back from detention," James said hastily.

"Didn't you have nighttime detention? Isn't that why you couldn't go duel with me? Well, since your detention was early, we can go tonight…

"No!" The three Marauders quickly said. Lily looked at them queerly.

"Er, we have something to do tonight," James moved towards the door while Sirius and Peter followed. "See you around, Evans," He disappeared. Lily looked at their retreating backs with a look of curiosity and perplexity before turning around and moving up to her room.

……………………………………………………….

"Hey, Anne!" Lily hissed, standing on her own bed as she shook her friend violently. "Anne!"

Anne was a deep sleeper. She finally woke up after several moments of Lily's attack. "What?" She said grumpily, still not opening her eyes.

"I think there's something moving on the grounds," Lily said quietly as she pointed to their window.

"Good for you, now let me sleep," Anne didn't bother to turn around.

"No, really! Look! Ow!" Lily tugged at her arm only to have Anne smack her pillow on top of her head. She looked at Elain on the other side of the room and contemplated waking her up, but it was doubtful she could do it without waking up everyone in the room.

So Lily crawled to the window herself and peered out again. She had woken up in the middle of the night for no particular reason at all and found herself staring upon a group of strange creatures on the grounds.

They were much closer now. There seemed to be a wolfish creature, a humungous, bear-like dog, a stag, and something bobbing along behind them. They were running around joyously in the moonlight, and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Lily blinked. She wondered if she was seeing things.

Her eyes fell on the stag's large and powerful antlers and she gasped. The intake of breath was sharp and cold, and her eyes widened with it. Images of McGonagal's class, working with James, and the Marauder's weirdly absurd nicknames for each other flashed in her head.

She looked from the stag to the dog to the wolf and to the bobbing thing, and even though she couldn't see what it was, Lily knew that whatever was running behind the other three was a rat.


	8. Confrontation with Potter

Disclaimer: I don't own any character, place, etc., that you recognize from Harry Potter. This applies for the entire story. 

Thanks for all the reviews!

_Lily-_

_As the words go—I fell pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright. And I pity any girl who isn't me tonight (that would be you especially.)_

_Vernon and I have set a date for our wedding. It's in June. This overjoys me, and my only sadness comes from the fact that you will never be able to feel this kind of happiness._

_Mom and Dad insist that you, being my sister and all, should be informed of this news. So that's why I'm writing this._

_Petunia._

Lily gave a slight "hmph" as she read the letter and folded it back again. "Longest letter she's ever written to me."

"Your sister wrote you?" Anne was surprised.

"Mom and Dad made her do it," Lily said absentmindedly as she put her letter aside and looked towards where James was sitting two tables down.

The four of them weren't as loud today at breakfast. Their heads were leaned in together and each of them had a sly look on their face that made Lily suspect they were plotting something.

Remus was looking completely normal now, as Lily knew he would. She had figured about his monthly absences and his sick relatives and didn't know how she couldn't have realized it before. That night made her realize the truth about all four of them

She looked back down at her breakfast. They were all unregistered, illegal. She didn't know what to think about this and was just pondering the situation when Elain's voice pierced her thoughts.

"Hey, look at this," she held up about twenty strips of white paper. "My cousin sent this to me. Said she ordered it out of _Witch Weekly_ and thought I might get a kick out of it. It's special paper. When you rub a strip on your nose it's suppose to tell you the guy who's truly in your heart."

There was a long moment of silence as the three friends stared at each other.

"That," Lily said finally, "has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever, ever heard."

"No, really. It might work."

"Then why don't you try it?"

"Okay," Elain replied, glancing briefly at Brian Key, the Hufflepuff chaser she was currently dating. Elain held the paper a little apprehensively and then rubbed it across her nose.

……………………….

The Marauders were also getting their share of mail a couple of tables down. James was just opening a package of cookies his mom sent when Sirius spoke.

"Hey look," Sirius was saying with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Letter from the folks."

"What'd they say?" Remus looked up from his own letter with curiosity as Sirius began to open the envelope.

"Oh, the usual," Sirius glanced through it while Peter leaned over to look. "Disgrace to the family……..can't believe we have a son like you………….why can't you be more like your brother, the same old trash." He crumpled the letter. "Where's the nearest fire I can toss this into?"

"You'll have to wait till we get back to the common room, mate," James was busy stuffing himself with cookies. They were all used to this by now. Ever since Sirius arrived at James' house over a year ago with a battered suitcase in his hands James had understood just how bad his family was.

James was now turning his wand over in his hands. "Isn't it funny? I'm actually going to duel with Evans tonight."

"I would think," Remus spoke, "that you would be working at getting along with her rather than fighting, Prongs."

"Fighting's the first step to getting along," James said chirpily.

Remus could only shake his head at his friend's philosophy.

………………………

"Who does it say?" Lily leaned in, trying to make out the words on Elain's scrap of paper, but she moved it out of her sight, looking at it like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Elain's face was crumpled in disgust. "This doesn't work," she said, as she reluctantly turned the paper to face her friends. On it was the name _Severus Snape _printed neatly in italics.

Lily and Anne burst out laughing. Elain crossed her arms. "Why don't you guys try it then?"

They shut up.

"Don't be ridiculous," Anne said, looking at Elain warily. "It doesn't even work, why would we try it?"

"You're just afraid," Elain challenged back. Lily was also looking at Anne with amusement. Anne was always the one who kept things like crushes to herself, trying hard not to reveal a single hint to even her best friends.

"Why would I…" But Anne's words were cut short when Elain put a piece of paper to her nose and quickly lifted it to see the name.

"Oh no you don't!" Anne shouted as she made a successful grab for the paper, spraying pumpkin juice all over her shirt. She then proceeded to rip the paper up to a million pieces. When she was done, her face was red from blushing and people nearby were looking at them curiously.

……………………………

"This is ridiculous," Lily muttered to herself as she headed towards her last lesson of the day, Charms. "Why am I so worked up over this?"

She thought of James. She had been thinking about him a lot over the summer and during the school year (for who knows what reason) and was thinking of him even more after the incident last night. Lily was bothered by this, bothered because James' smile popped up so many times in her head while she was trying to sleep at night that she was afraid she _didn't_ want to have nothing to do with Potter.

"Evans!" Lily looked up to find James next to her and jumped up in surprise. The corridor she was walking in had been empty a few moments ago, she was sure.

"Wow, Evans," James smirked. "so oblivious to your surroundings."

Lily snapped out of her pensive mood. "Do you live to annoy the living daylights out of me, Potter?"

"Why yes," James said sarcastically. "That's my whole purpose in life. And where are you going anyways? Don't we have Charms next?"

Lily froze and realized she had been walking in the opposite direction, distracted as she was. Frustrated, she turned around and started stomping down the corridor the other way.

"What's wrong?" James said softly. "You seem a bit off today."

She turned to give a snappy reply but the words stopped when she looked into James' hazel eyes. And suddenly Lily wanted to speak what was on her mind for so long.

"When did it happen?"

"What?" James was confused.

"You."

"When did I happen?"

"No," Lily shook her head. "You. A stag."

James stopped moving. His eyes were slightly wide and his jaw clenched as he scanned the corridor for any signs of other people.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Evans," he said sharply.

Lily frowned. "I saw you," her voice was barely a whisper. "Don't deny it."

"I have no idea…

"Prongs," She said. "That's why they call you prongs."

"Huh?" James looked wildly about, afraid of eavesdroppers and what he was hearing from the red-headed girl in front of him. "Who calls me what?"

"And Remus with his monthly disappearances," Lily continued, determined to get everything out. "Every full moon. Anne's right. His uncle Barry did die twice. And Sirius is padfoot, a dog right? A huge black dog. And Peter, wormtail. A rat? A mouse?"

"Stop! Stop!" James waved his hands wildly about in front of Lily, trying to shush her.

There was silence in the corridor as the two looked at each other, James with a faint frown and Lily full of puzzlement and curiosity.

Finally, James spoke. "A rat," his voice was quiet. "Peter is a rat."

His acknowledgement that it was all true was everything Lily needed at the moment. She didn't press on but instead said, "C'mon, we're going to be late."

When they resumed walking again, James kept stealing glances at her.

"What?"

"You, er, aren't going to go to McGonagall or anyone, will you?"

Lily looked at him, surprised. The truth was, such a thought had never crossed her mind. And it seemed funny that James would think such a thing, so funny, in fact, that she smiled.

"Oh, no," she said as James' face flooded with relief. "Besides, even if I did tell, I think McGonagall would be more proud than angry. She's always talking about how brilliant you are."

"She is?"

Lily sighed. "If you weren't so busy plotting evil things to do in class you'd have noticed the little nods of approval she gives to you and Sirius and Remus that she doesn't give to anyone else. And you still haven't answered my question. When did it happen?"

"It was during fifth year," James was smiling now. "Actually we started researching second year and during the first couple of months of fifth year we had managed to master transforming pretty well."

"Why did you do it?"

"For Remus. It's better for him if we are there to accompany him, as animals, of course, not as people."

Lily looked at him curiously, not used to the considerate side of him. "When'd you find out about Remus?"

"End of first year. It was mighty suspicious. His mother got sick so often I thought she was going to break a world record. We keep telling Remus that the sick relative thing is getting old and pretty easy to see through, but none of us has come up with anything better."

"That is really incredible," Lily breathed. "Fifteen year-olds who could successfully turn into Animagi. Do you know people take at least ten years to learn how to do what you accomplished?"

They were now at the Charms classroom door, and before James had a chance to say anything Professor Flitwick's voice boomed and nearly shook them out of the room.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Evans!" The earth shook. "You're late to class! You missed out on my demonstration of the voice magnification charm!"

"Yes, we can see that," James muttered under his breath.

"Sorry Professor," Lily said as she quickly moved to her seat. "The stairs kept moving on us."

James, meanwhile, was sitting down next to Sirius. "She knows about the thing."

Sirius and Remus' eyes were wide. "Evans knows?"

"Don't worry," James said, "She won't tell."

"Lily knows what?" Peter piped.

"She knows about us," Sirius was exasperated.

"She knows us?" Peter was thoroughly confused.

"No, she knows about us being you know what!"

"Oh," Peter paused. "What are we being?"

"Nevermind!" the other three said simultaneously at this.


End file.
